


Persona QH: History is a Labyrinth

by Benedict_SC



Category: Persona 3, Persona 4, Persona 5, Persona Series
Genre: A Persona Q but not pointless, Crime-Solving Mystery Teens, Crossover, Gen, Multiple Perspectives, Mystery, Persona 4 Spoilers, Persona 5 Spoilers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-24
Updated: 2021-03-11
Packaged: 2021-03-14 17:28:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 16,862
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29670735
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Benedict_SC/pseuds/Benedict_SC
Summary: Under mysterious circumstances, a number of persona-users and their associates are drawn from different points in time into an unusual cognitive world, and must uncover the Truth hidden in the labyrinth to escape. What is this place- and why them?P5: Makoto, Akechi, Morgana, HifumiP4: Nanako, Yu, Chie, NaotoP3: Hidetoshi, Natsuki, Junpei, Koromaru(I got steamed at what a nothingburger Persona Q2 was, and went all like "I bet I could write a better Q game! And it can be a murder mystery, somehow! Yeah!")
Comments: 5
Kudos: 18





	1. Three Questions

“Er- we’ve got a new hit.”

Queen looked up. “Inside the detention center?”

“Roger,” Mona replied. “Or- encompassing it, to be more precise.”

Crow looked puzzled- no, he didn’t look puzzled, he was doing that thing where he pretended to look puzzled but was still grinning. “You don’t suppose… that would be Joker’s doing, would it?”

Mona hissed. “What’s _that_ supposed to mean?”

He shrugged. “About what it sounds like. The leader of a group of phantom thieves, with that mysterious ‘wild card’ ability… you ever wonder if there’s a little more to that? Some kind of distorted desire?”

“It’s _not_ Joker’s Palace,” Queen said. “If he had such a thing, it definitely would’ve interfered with our missions before now.”

“It could be a matter of location,” Crow suggested. “From what he’s told us of that ‘Velvet Room’ place, its resemblance to a prison… perhaps his small, private palace has expanded to match the true prison he now inhabits.”

Mona and Queen shared a look. What did Akechi mean by ‘Velvet Room’? Joker hadn’t told them anything of the sort- but Akechi was _assuming_ he had, as part of his cover. Just a little bit longer, and they’d have him trapped- but if they let on that _they_ knew that _he_ knew things he _shouldn’t_ know, they’d lose his cooperation at this critical stage in the plan. They had to fake it- but they didn’t know any details about this Velvet Room, so they couldn’t spin some kind of argument about why it wasn’t Joker’s Palace.

They were saved by their Defective Prince’s love of the sound of his own voice. He carried on talking.

“Still… this is still a prison break. It’s time to do our part- we compromise the prison in reality, and if a _second_ prison has formed in the Metaverse… we’ll just have to break that one, too. The plan is unchanged, I assume?”

Mona paused, then nodded, putting a paw to his earpiece. “Oracle- Noir, Skull, Fox, and Panther are in position in the rear, right?”

Some chirp of sound, followed by Mona’s nod, indicated that the Metaverse team was ready.

The plan was simple. Queen, with her connection to Sae, would attempt to gain entry to talk with her sister. Crow would accompany her, using his police connections to talk past anyone who tried to obstruct Queen’s request. Once inside, Mona would slip out of Queen’s bag and cause a distraction, while Queen and Crow continued inside to spring Joker by pulling him into the Metaverse.

The _actual_ plan wasn’t so simple. Shadow Sae’s palace was still active, and they’d talked her into providing a cognitive replica of Joker in the appropriate prison cell. Queen would find a way to split off from Crow- anticipating that Crow would try to shake her anyway. It wouldn’t be hard- she’d just have to pretend to fall for his excuse. If nothing came up, Mona would pretend to be in trouble, and she’d split off from Crow to save him. _Then,_ Akechi would have free rein to confront Cognitive Joker, once Sae flashed him Oracle’s program on the way in. Queen and Sae, meanwhile, would ensure the real Joker’s escape while Akechi was distracted by the fake.

That was the plan. But… Mona had indicated there was a problem. If another palace had formed around the prison, there was no guarantee Sae’s Palace would take precedence and maintain the correct cognitive illusion to foil Akechi’s plan.

Unfortunately, they didn’t have time to adapt the plan on the fly. They were headed into the detention center.

Quiet place, considering they’d just captured the leader of the Phantom Thieves. She’d expected more excitement. Instead, just dingy gray corridors and fluorescent lighting. Eerily abandoned, for the most part. Exactly how it was expected to look in the…

She tried changing into her Phantom Thief attire, just to make sure they hadn’t _themselves_ been secretly slipped into a Palace. Thankfully, no dice.

In fact, it did seem like there was _some_ activity. They passed a detention cell, containing…

“Wait,” Makoto said, hugging the wall by the door to eavesdrop.

“You have _nothing!”_ a woman’s voice spat. “Nothing I did was illegal!”

“You’ve said that plenty of times,” a bored man’s voice replied. “Again, it’s entirely untrue. You might’ve had a leg to stand on if there hadn’t been betting on the matches, but I’m afraid that-”

“Not _once!”_ the woman objected. “Not one yen! I would never participate in such debasement!”

“There’s no concrete proof of that,” the officer replied. “Your financial records are still being examined- but please calm down. The standard sentence is a small fine. You’re not looking at jail time.”

She could actually hear the woman’s chair rattle. “This… this…”

“Mother… please.”

That voice confirmed it. It was her- the shogi player Joker was dating. And… the mother whose heart they’d changed in Mementos. If she recalled correctly, her mother had been fixing shogi matches with bribes. That had landed them in some legal hot water, apparently.

“Let’s go,” Crow whispered. He seemed uninterested.

“Just a moment,” Makoto hissed back. “I’m-”

then

the

world

cried

out:

“What Power Hath The Truth?”

and four people fell into darkness.

* * *

She perused the shelves. The books were dusty- like they hadn’t been touched in years. _Murder on the Orient Express. The Benson Murder Case. The Tokyo Zodiac Murders. Rondo of the Witch and Reasoning._ Several volumes of _Sherlock Holmes. And Then There Were None._

And… more like those. Mystery novels. Mystery novels Dad didn’t read.

In his room.

Where she wasn’t supposed to be.

She wasn’t supposed to be in his room. She also wasn’t supposed to read books like this, above her reading level. Or above what her teachers said her reading level was supposed to be, to match with the rest of the class. Whenever her teachers saw her reading a book with no pictures, they’d take it away. It wasn’t fair, and Dad had promised to have a talk with them, but…

He was always too busy. He was never home.

That’s why, several pages into _Hound of the Baskervilles,_ she was surprised to hear the door click.

“…”

She couldn’t read the expression on his face. Probably… anger? She’d broken the rules and gone inside his room, so of course he’d be angry. But there was something else there, and she couldn’t figure out what.

He took in a deep breath.

“Nanako.”

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry, I’ll- I know, I’m sorry,” she said, hastily closing the book and putting it back on the shelf.

He sighed, putting a stack of papers down on his bed. “It’s… ugh. It’s fine.”

“I, um… ‘I’ll accept my punishment’,” she said, reciting what her teachers taught her.

“Oh- hell, Nanako, no. I…” he trailed off, looking thoughtful. “Christ. When was the last time you broke a rule? How do I…?”

“I’m sorry,” Nanako said again, just to make sure he remembered.

“…gotta come up with something,” he said. “Um. How about… damn. Are there any foods she doesn’t like…?”

He seemed distracted. Kept looking at the bookshelf, and back to her, and having that weird pained expression.

“…Uh, you don’t like spicy food, right? Probably?”

She thought for a moment. “Um… I don’t know. I haven’t had a lot of spicy things, but that spicy omurice Rise made was good… but it did sting a little…”

He snapped his fingers. “Fish heads. You don’t like fish heads. Go downstairs and tell them to keep the heads on the fish.”

She grimaced. She _didn’t_ like fish heads. Not because they tasted bad, but. Well. They looked at her, and made her feel bad for eating them…

Oh. He’d ushered her out and closed the door. And now he’d be in his room, looking over those case files for the rest of the night…

…Oh! Right! “Them”- Big Bro was here! She hurried down the stairs, and saw…

Oh. It was… Naoto and Chie. Where was…?

Yu stood up from behind the counter, having retrieved a wok from underneath. “Found it,” he said, with that same soft voice he always used.

“Oh- hello, Nanako-chan,” Naoto said, noticing her. “How was school?”

“Geez, Naoto! How do you _think_ school was? It’s school! It’s boring!” Chie objected.

“N-no, I had fun,” Nanako lied. “I like going to school.”

Naoto nodded approvingly, while Chie looked at her like she’d just grown a second head.

…And then _Naoto_ looked at her like she’d grown a second head. And so did Big Bro.

“…What? What is it?” Nanako asked. Could they tell she was lying? It was fine, really- she could handle it herself. She had to handle it herself, since Dad didn’t have time to come in and help her.

But… wait, no. They weren’t looking at her. They were looking _behind_ her. At the TV. Which was… off, right?

She turned around, and found she was wrong. The TV _wasn’t_ off. It was on, and showing static. Static with… a sort of strange swirling pattern, actually. How had _that_ happened? The remote was sitting right there on the new kotatsu. Maybe a neighbor was messing with one of those… universe remotes? Or…

“It’s not midnight,” Naoto pointed out.

Yu nodded.

“It’s not raining, either!” Chie said, sounding worried.

Nanako looked at them funny. “Yes? Uh… did I miss something? What’s that have to do with the TV?”

Big Bro walked past her and up to the TV. As he did so, the room… started getting darker. She didn’t have much time to ponder why- it was only a few steps from the kitchen to the TV. With each step, the TV screen got brighter and brighter, and…

“Wait, stop-“ Naoto said, just a little too late to stop him from reaching out through the darkness to the blindingly bright screen-

then

the

world

cried

out:

“Is Not The Truth A Corpse?”

and four people fell into darkness.

* * *

“So Akihiko’s like, c’mon, try a protein bar! And I’m like, have you never heard of a beef bowl, man? It’s no contest!”

Kirijo sighed. “Iori, I have very little frame of reference for this. You cannot expect me to arbitrate a dispute when I have no understanding of either side.”

“Are you kidding? That’s the whole point! You’re a neutral third party! It’s like sensei was saying, about the scientific method!”

She pinched the bridge of her nose. “You’ve designed an experiment, then?”

“That’s right! It’s simple: you go to the ramen place and get a beef bowl, then Akihiko gives you one of his nasty protein bars. Whichever one you like more is the winner. Objectively!”

“Isn’t that a poor sample size for an experiment, Junpei?” Yamagishi asked.

“Look, Kirijo-senpai’s in charge, ain’t she? That means what she says goes! We don’t need another opinion!”

“…all else being equal, wouldn’t whatever you ate first taste better, because you’re hungrier?” Arisato asked.

Iori stomped his foot, gesticulating wildly. “Then she can have the protein bar first! I’m _that_ confident the beef bowl’s gonna be better than that powdery crap!”

He watched the display from a ways away, with some consternation. The president’s other club… she didn’t seem very comfortable around them. All that arguing, teasing, general silliness… what did that group even _do,_ anyway? Not even Arisato would tell him. “SEES”. Sees what?

Wait, who was that approaching? …Wasn’t that Moriyama? There’d been those _reports_ about her- he’d delegated to his kouhai, since he wasn’t well-equipped to investigate the subtler sort of bullying the girls of Gekkoukan got up to.

What was she saying? Something about- gah, she was facing the wrong way, he couldn’t hear a thing. He didn’t just hear “murder”, did he?

“Whoa, whoa! Seriously?!” Iori said, startled. “Like, right outside Paulownia?”

Something else indistinct from Moriyama, who’d thrown an arm around Yamagishi.

“…It’s not exactly pursuant to our mission,” Kirijo said.

“But- but c’mon! Our job is to help people, right? Plus- plus what if it’s Chidorita’s creepy friends? Those Strega guys!”

“Statistically-” Kirijo began,

Iori turned to Moriyama. “Hey, don’t worry about a thing! Junpei Iori, Ace Detective, is on the case!”

Moriyama laughed. “We’re just going to gawk, man. Don’t get too excited.”

“ _We_ are not going anywhere,” Kirijo interjected. “Next period is in less than ten minutes. You don’t have the time to spare.”

They’d moved into a position where he could see their faces, now. Moriyama was frowning. “You’re with me, right, Fuuka?”

Fuuka looked awkward. “Um… um! I’d like to, but… Kirijo-senpai’s right about class…”

“Oh my gawwwwd,” Moriyama groaned. “What’s with you people and _grades?”_

“Hey, I just remembered,” Iori cut in hastily. “I’ve gotta… go… walk Koro-chan! We totally forgot to walk him today!”

“I thought Aigis had that handled,” Arisato pointed out.

“Nope! She forgot! So I’m gonna do that! Bye!”

“Junpei, class is still…!” Fuuka protested.

Moriyama winked at her. “Don’t worry- I’ll tell you all about it.”

And then she and Junpei ran off. To the south. That is to say, away from the school. To _cut class._

Oh that was _so_ not about to happen on _his_ watch.

-

“HiAigisI’mjustgonnaborrowKoromarurealquicktocovermyassbye!”

“Iori-san? I do not comprehend your-”

“Alsopleaseslowdowntheangryhallmonitorchasingusseeya!”

Iori and Moriyama ran off- even stopping to steal a dog from that random girl didn’t slow them down enough to catch up! Why, oh why had he joined the disciplinary committee instead of the track team?!

-

“There it is!” Moriyama shouted, pointing at a line of police tape.

Iori looked behind him, the dog guiding him forward. “That’s great, but that guy’s _still chasing us!_ We gotta lose him before we stop to smell the roses!”

“Well, that’s-”

No one- _no one-_ evaded justice when Hidetoshi Odagiri was on the job. With a burst of determination, accompanied by a burst of speed, he finally closed the distance- and jumped, executing an impressive flying tackle and knocking Iori’s legs out from under him.

They went down in a tangle of limbs- but soon, he felt hands on his arms. Moriyama was- good God, she was strong!- pulling him off Iori. The dog barked at him.

“You-” he started, dodging a flying elbow- “are in violation of-” a backwards headbutt- “truancy regulations!”

In the middle of the fracas, he happened to turn his head to the right somewhat. On his right was a line of yellow police tape. And for a split second, he saw a furious-looking man shouting at a policewoman, next to what looked like a dead body on the ground.

In the next split second, he saw coffins in their place.

_What?_

“…What the…?!”

The three of them immediately stopped fighting- because something had gone very wrong. With… everything.

The dog growled. Moriyama shook. And Iori…

“Wh- hang on a sec! It’s not even close to midnight!”

The world had gone an eerie green, the sky had gone dark, everyone besides the three of them and the dog had turned into coffins, an enormous tower had sprouted to pierce the sky in the distance, and… Junpei Iori was concerned that it _wasn’t midnight._

“Iori. What, the _fuck,”_ Moriyama stated.

then

the

world

cried

out:

“Can Even The Truth Save Me Now?”

  
  


and three people (and one dog), already in darkness, asked “Wait, what was that?” in so many words.

“How…” Hidetoshi began, but found no further words.

“Wait… Iori, is this… is this the same as… did I forget…?” Moriyama asked.

“Grrrrr,” Koromaru clarified.

“You guys? I, uh… I’m gonna be honest: I have no idea what the heck is going on here,” Iori explained.


	2. Bearings

Entering the Metaverse was usually seamless. That had been the cornerstone of the plan- if Akechi noticed the transition, everything would be shot. This time, though… the sensation was like waking up, if you were waking up on your feet with your eyes open. A moment ago, the rules were different, the world was something else. A lingering attachment to that world had to be discarded with an exhausting effort, to start making sense of the newly familiar.

Also, the walls had turned blue and rearranged themselves, which made it kind of obvious.

“Mmnfmph!” a voice protested from the general vicinity of her hip.

Looking down, she saw the bag bulging, straining under the pressure of something large trying to escape. Realizing what had happened, she hastily unzipped it, and Mona tumbled out in his… what was that supposed to be called? His mascot form? She’d never been entirely sure what Mona’s metaverse appearance was meant to resemble.

Well, a cat, kind of, but he was emphatic about it not being that.

“What happened?! Did someone use the Metaverse Navigator? Where are we?” Mona began asking, rapid-fire.

“Well…”

Akechi was looking around the new room, scrutinizing it, so she followed suit.

They were in a cell, apparently. The walls were a metallic blue, the floor a vaguely multicolored diamond plate. The ceiling… it was in total shadow, the room’s harsh orange ambient light _seeming_ to come from points in that darkness but failing to actually illuminate it. She checked her shadow, to confirm, and found that, yes, there was some sort of light source up there that bypassed the eye, only becoming visible after bouncing off a surface. With a mirror, perhaps, she could see them, or…

Well, no, that mystery was running away with her. The eerie lighting wasn’t important- this was a Palace, Palaces were a product of a person’s cognition. It didn’t matter how light behaved here- it was just an effect, spooky ambient lighting produced by someone’s impression of how the place _ought_ to be lit. Analyzing things like that was a tempting distraction, from…

Well, from the occupants of this cell. Herself, Mona, Akechi, and…

…Joker’s girlfriend, the shogi player. She’d been drawn in? How? Why not her mother, or the interrogating officer? It couldn’t have been a proximity thing- they’d been outside the room, the girl had sounded further away than the two adults. A line of sight, maybe? She’d been listening, but- where had Akechi been? Maybe he’d taken a peek inside, seen just- just whatever her name was. Togo? If the angle had been right- but then why would it be line of sight, why not-

Ugh. Another rabbit hole. She needed to stay focused. Maybe-Togo was on the floor, unconscious. Why had she been knocked out, where the rest of them had maintained consciousness? Was there some effect in play, debilitating those without Perso-

She had _just_ told herself to _stay focused! Gah!_

“It’s different,” Akechi mused.

“Different?”

“The Velvet Room,” he replied. The Velvet Room again- what was that about? “It’s too large, and he described it as having padded walls. Like fancy cushions. This seems different, though…”

She sighed. This situation- she hadn’t bothered to risk confronting Akechi on the subject, earlier, since if _he_ knew that _they_ knew that _he_ knew things he _shouldn’t_ know, he wouldn’t think they were fooled. There were ways to pursue that information, but she hadn’t wanted to take the risk, before. But now…

“Crow, what’s the Velvet Room? You said Joker had… a private prison? Some kind of Palace?”

He looked surprised- she could see the beginnings of panic in his expression, before he settled on a defense.

“That’s… sorry, he never told you?”

That’d have to be the story, then. She couldn’t think what Joker would tell Akechi that he wouldn’t have told to the rest of them, but it was plausible he’d said something to mess with his head. He loved doing that kind of thing.

“Never told us what?” Mona asked.

Akechi looked thoughtful. “The Velvet Room… you know Joker’s power of the Wild Card, right? I assumed… he’d have explained how that works?”

“He said his ability drew on his… bonds,” she said. “That he gained new personas as his relationships developed.”

Akechi frowned. “Well, yes. But- indirectly, right? He didn’t tell you about the long-nosed man, the twin wardens, the prison cell…?”

The- wait, the long-nosed man? Joker had… he’d mentioned offhand, once, to let him know if she ever ran into a man with a long nose. Was that some kind of warning about Akechi? His tengu mask? That… no, that’d been shortly after they met, well before they knew what Akechi’s metaverse costume looked like. Was there seriously a long-nosed…

“I think you’re going to need to fill us in,” Mona said.

Akechi filled them in. Apparently, Joker had some kind of recurring dream about being trapped in a blue prison, run by a long-nosed man and a pair of creepy uniformed children. This was where he went to forge his bonds into power- creating new Personas. The long-nosed man was supposedly the source of the power of the Wild Card. The children were named Caroline and Justine, and were cruel and condescending.

There were two things that were notable about this.

The first thing was that it rung true. Joker had, a few times, when he seemed tired or irritable, mentioned that “his friend Caroline” had been giving him a hard time. It hadn’t seemed worth questioning- Joker had a _million_ friends, a chronic extrovert who spent his time running all over the city solving problems for dozens of strangers. Akechi’s description of Joker’s prison explained a number of confusing and cryptic remarks he’d made over the past few months.

The _second_ thing was that there was _no way_ Akechi could have learned all this from Joker.

Joker didn’t talk very much. Unexpected, for a boy with so many friends, but maybe that was his secret. He only ever said _exactly_ what he needed to say, never revealed anything but the best of himself. It was something worrying she’d seen in him- a pathological people-pleaser, switching masks again and again to be just who he needed to be in the moment. Never risked voicing a thought of his own, because then someone might _disagree_ with him.

It was what made him an effective leader, and the Phantom Thieves’ most powerful asset. It was also what made him difficult to get close to. She worried if she ever got him to open up, she’d find what she’d opened up… was empty inside.

…She’d gone down a rabbit hole again. She put that bit of anxiety aside.

The point was: Joker didn’t talk very much. Single sentences, usually, when called on to respond. When he did speak for himself, it was to give marching orders, or to make some kind of cryptic joke that he found funny precisely because nobody else would get it.

He likely hadn’t mentioned the Velvet Room because it was something about himself, not relevant to anyone else. When you understood Joker, it made perfect sense that he hadn’t mentioned it.

And Akechi was here claiming that Joker had described, in exacting, detective-like detail, the exact nature of his largely-irrelevant hallucinations. The dimensions of his cell. The texture of the padded walls. The personalities of the twin wardens, who, incidentally, she could already hear Futaba using as props to make some incredibly tasteless joke about “jailbait”, which she would snicker about until she looked around to confirm that no one else was laughing.

Figuratively, of course. She couldn’t _actually_ hear-

“Oracle?” she asked, experimentally. No response. She’d been cut off- was this palace somehow shielded from Prometheus?

“…Aha. You’ve just now realized we’ve been cut off from our navigator,” Akechi said.

Akechi. Right, she’d been thinking about Akechi, who couldn’t _possibly_ have heard all that firsthand from Joker. When he’d been looking around, examining the cell they were in for “differences”, he’d clearly been doing a visual evaluation. Trying to see if it was a match for something he’d _seen_ before.

Assuming the Velvet Room wasn’t a total fabrication (and with how it lined up with Joker’s end of things, she had to assume it wasn’t), Akechi had been here before. As a prisoner? As a warden? What on _earth…?_

No, not useful to think about right now. She could theorize, but if she could just _find Joker,_ she could ask him directly.

Mona clearly thought the same. “Okay, you two! Quit standing around- we need to get out of this cell!”

Akechi nodded. “Indeed… perhaps we should try to attract the attention of a guard? Our Personas can manifest a distance from our bodies- if we summon them outside the door, we could incapacitate the guard and retrieve the keys.”

Makoto nodded back, and then walked over to the door. In a flash, she was in her Phantom Thief outfit, and in _another_ flash, she’d punched the flimsy metal door off its hinges with a burst of supernatural strength. In landed in the hallway with a crash.

Akechi did his best to not look intimidated. “Or we could do that,” he agreed.

She stepped out into the hallway, and looked down it in both directions. No sign of shadows, no sign of guards- but it seemed to round corners at both ends, and the section of hallway visible to her wasn’t very long. There could be anything lurking out there.

“Hey! Where do you think you’re going?” Mona snapped.

“Hm?”

She looked back, and- oh, right. Mona was trying to lift up the unconscious body of maybe-Togo. She’d almost forgotten.

“I can’t carry her all by myself!” he pointed out.

“You have a Persona, don’t you?” Akechi asked. “Have- it’s Zorro, right? Have Zorro carry her.”

Makoto pulled off her mask, something she’d gotten used to doing. It always sort of felt like ripping off the skin of her face, but the sensation of burning that followed strangely canceled out the pain- and the feeling only lasted a second. Shortly thereafter, the world’s coolest motorcycle was there. “Johanna- we’re going to have a passenger. Is that okay?”

There was an almost-voice in her head that told her _yes,_ and then also told her that _she was being silly asking permission first, since she was a part of herself and couldn’t possibly disagree._ Which… was true, but it was strange. Sure, whenever Johanna spoke, it was technically a part of her own subconscious speaking, and she realized she’d been thinking it as soon as she heard it “aloud”, but… she _acted_ like she was a real person, she had her own face and body and way of thinking, and it never stopped being uncomfortable treating a part of herself like a tool.

It probably didn’t help that Johanna’s very existence was a physical manifestation of her own discomfort with treating herself as a tool to be used by others.

Whatever. Whatever! She needed to stop thinking about the weird emotional paradox of Johanna’s existence, and get maybe-Togo off the floor.

And as she lifted the girl’s body, she realized-

-well, first, she realized that even though _she_ could get away with riding a motorcycle without a helmet, because the motorcycle itself was a magic projection that absorbed all physical harm she took, the same didn’t apply to passengers, and she’d need to drive slowly and carefully and ideally find a proper helmet as soon as possible.

And _then_ she realized that there was an explanation for maybe-Togo’s presence, here in the Metaverse.

She was dating Joker, of course.

If Joker owned this Palace, he wouldn’t be interested in drawing some random policeman into it. He didn’t have much interest in the mom, either. But his teammates, his nemesis, and his girlfriend- _that_ could happen.

And in this blue prison of a Palace, where Joker had been imprisoned, overlaid on where Joker had _literally_ been imprisoned, well… that could be a problem.

* * *

Hidetoshi Odagiri had a problem.

“That- that thing was real, wasn’t it?” Moriyama sputtered.

“What, you mean the… king and queen thingies that were bothering you? Uh…”

“Bark!”

“Hey, whose side are you on, Koro-chan?”

“He just said ‘bark’. How’s that-”

“Oh, Aigis is teaching me to speak dog, yeah? It’s slow going, but I’m pretty sure he was just sassing me for-”

“-for making it super-obvious they _were_ real? I- Jesus fuck, Iori, those things have been haunting my nightmares for…”

“Look, we weren’t supposed to tell anyone! It’s this whole… secret… thingy…”

Hidetoshi’s problem didn’t directly have to do with the fact that the world had gone green and almost everyone had been turned into creepy-looking coffins. It wasn’t about the eldritch tower sprouting from where the school had surely been a minute ago, breaking the sky in half. It wasn’t directly related to the cars which had frozen in place, their drivers entombed.

“Secret thingy? Is- wait, is _that_ what SEES does? I thought that was like… some kinda military thing, like- a Junior JSDF club.”

“Ehhhhhhh… maybe? I mean, it’s sort of… we _might_ be in with the military? I think it’s mostly Kirijo Group, but, uh…”

“Bark!”

“Oh, can it, Koro-chan! There’s no point keeping secrets! It’s the, uh… the… 13:22… hour…?”

“The what? Iori, if you don’t start explaining, I’m gonna kick your ass!”

Hidetoshi’s problem wasn’t even something more abstract, like that magic was apparently real and Junpei Iori was some kind of authority on magic. It wasn’t even that weird that he could, apparently, talk to dogs. His problem was _not,_ as much as he’d like it to be, that everything he’d thought he’d known about the regularity and order in the universe had been thrown out the window like an empty soda can tossed aside by a littering delinquent.

“Okay, okay, okay! I mean- I’m pretty sure you couldn’t kick my ass even if you tried, actually, ‘cause right now I’m hopped up on magic Hermes powers, but-”

“I don’t know what that means, but you’re wrong. I guarantee you’re wrong. I _am_ gonna kick your ass.”

“No, I mean- wait. Hang on, you don’t have a Persona, right? How the hell… you should totally be a coffin right now, I think.”

“You wanna say that again?!”

“N-no! I mean, unless you, uh… unless you got magic powers, you’re supposed to be all frozen like everyone else when this happens!”

“Wh- _when this happens?_ Like it happens all the time?”

“Uh. Literally every day.”

“Bark!”

“What the- you’re gonna have to explain that, but- I mean, I’m immune, right? I was immune before, so… I bet I _do_ have magic powers!”

“I think that was… uh, wait, that _was_ weird, actually. You shoulda been a coffin back then, too, right…? I think Ikutsuki said it was some kind of exception, but-”

“Anyway, if I have magic powers, then so does _this_ schlub!”

Hidetoshi’s _problem,_ rather, was that Natsuki Moriyama had him pinned to the ground and was sitting on his back. His _problem_ was that he’d failed to apprehend the truants, and had instead been captured _himself._ Surely the bell had rung by now, which meant his _other_ problem was that he was now a truant _himself._

He didn’t like this situation at all.

“Oh, right. Uh… man, what _is_ this guy’s deal? He’s the disciplinary committee guy, right?” Iori asked.

“I guess so- look at the armband,” Moriyama pointed out.

Enough was enough. Summoning up a burst of strength, he-

“Whoa, nope!” Moriyama said, adjusting her grip and turning his attempted escape into a surge of pain in his arms.

“Unhand me!” he demanded, realizing as he said it that “Unhand me!” was precisely the sort of thing no one ever agreed to do when it was demanded of them.

“Nuh-uh,” Moriyama said.

“Uh… I mean, this guy… sorry, what’s your name?” Iori asked.

“Odagiri,” he growled. It was, at least, a step up from being referred to in the third person while he was right there.

“Cool, okay, uh… Odagiri…-san? Second-year, right?”

“Yes,” he said, as though it mattered at the moment.

“Okay, so Odagiri-san- can we let you up without you tryin’ to, uh, arrest us? Because there’s sort of… other problems we gotta focus on.”

“Yes,” again. He was tempted to say something more biting, but he knew Moriyama would twist his arm again if he tried to get smart.

She whispered something sharp at Iori, which he couldn’t make out, but whatever it was, she let go of his arms and got up.

He didn’t get up right away- just rolled over and sat up, surveying the situation somewhat better than he’d been able to do while lying more or less facedown.

They were more or less in the middle of the street, at a three-way intersection where Lone Road teed off at Span 20-NS. One lane of 20-NS had been shut down for a stretch, marked off by road cones to divert traffic. There was a coffin not far away from them, where an officer had been alternating the north-south traffic through the squeeze. A couple of cars with coffins in them were passing through to the north- or had been, before time had frozen.

Lone Road had been a prescient name, as the street- once a fairly busy commercial district- had dwindled once they finished the Span 20 bypass that let traffic move past the winding streets of the area. The office buildings on the north side had all been shuttered, and the busiest area- judging by the concentration of coffins- was the bus stop at the corner, on the south side.

It was just in front of that bus stop that the road had been completely closed off by a circle of yellow police tape. Where a police officer had been yelling at another police officer moments before the time-freeze, there were now two coffins, standing next to the dead body of a woman (which for some reason was _not_ in a coffin.) Standing at the foot of the body, looking down at it in apparent thought, was some woman in an elaborate black dress.

He turned to Iori. “Don’t think I’ll be forgetting your transgression- but I’m going to need an explanation. This is… SEES business? Can I speak to your faculty advisor?”

Moriyama laughed in his face. “Can you- ‘can I speak to your faculty advisor’, oh my god! Ahahahaha!”

“Uh,” Iori started-

“Look around you, tightwad! You see all _this,_ and the first thing you think of is running to the teachers! Like our teachers are gonna know what to do about- about Coffin World, or whatever this is!”

“No, it’s- that’s a good idea, actually. I’ll call up that Ikutsuki guy- he should have some intel.”

Moriyama looked at him like he’d grown another head. “Seriously?”

Iori shrugged and got out his phone. “He kinda runs the show, man. If he doesn’t know anything, I can call Minato and Mitsuru, and they can probably figure it out.”

Hidetoshi scoffed. “Some sense. Wonders never cease.”

The dog barked at him.

Unfortunately, Iori couldn’t get a signal. “That’s… no, hang on. This thing’s a piece of junk.”

Moriyama pulled out her own phone. “Fuuka’s SEES, right? I’ll call her.”

Iori shook his head. “Uh… that’s sort of the problem. Cell phones don’t, like, _work_ in the Dark Hour? Not normal ones, anyway. Because, like, the cell towers have to receive the signals and stuff, but with everything frozen, it doesn’t go through, so…”

“Wh- then why’d you try to call-”

“No, yeah, Fuuka did some stuff to our phones, so they can use Lucia as a cell phone tower, basically. She’s like, our comms agent.”

“Wait, who’s Lucia?” Moriyama asked.

“That’s- uh, that’s Fuuka. Her Persona, I mean. Crap, I’m gonna have to explain Personas… just, uh, I mean… you read Jojo, right?”

“Sh’ _yeah,”_ Moriyama said, rolling her eyes. “What, is Lucia some kind of-”

“It’s her Stand, yeah. Think of it like that. SEES is basically a team of stand users, except we hunt, like, shadow demons.”

Odagiri closed his eyes. “What, if you please, in the _world_ are you talking about?”

Iori snapped his fingers. “Easier to just show you- gimme a sec.”

He wasn’t quite able to process what Iori was doing in time. The rummaging in his bag wasn’t suspicious- there were any number of reasons he might do that. When he pulled something _out_ of his bag, that got his attention- but there wasn’t enough time to process the shape of the object, not between it coming out of the back and pressing against his head.

He only had enough time to _begin_ a lunge forward, and shout _“NO!”,_ before Iori pulled the trigger on the gun he’d put to his own head.

There was no bang.

There was the sound of shattering glass, and then… well, he lost his footing for a moment, and when he’d righted himself, Junpei wasn’t dead.

And also, there was a giant robot floating in the air next to him.

“So, okay, this is my Persona, Her-“

“ _YOU JUST SHOT YOURSELF IN THE HEAD!”_ Moriyama objected, mirroring his own train of thought.

Iori frowned and looked at his gun. “No, this is just an Evoker, it’s like-”

“You’ve been taking a _gun_ with you to school every day?!” Odagiri snapped.

“No, it’s- jeez, dude, it’s not a gun, it’s a fake gun.”

“A fake gun that you _shoot yourself in the head_ with, and that summons a super robot?” Moriyama asked.

Iori looked uncomfortable. “I mean, yeah, basically. That’s not the point, though- I mean, SEES, everyone’s got one. Fuuka’s got one.”

Moriyama looked momentarily frozen- Fuuka Yamagishi, right? A former victim, a member of SEES… there was some history, but he didn’t know enough to figure out the look of horror on her face.

He crossed his arms, affecting a stern and unsurprised demeanor that was completely at odds with his actual mental state re: Iori shooting himself in the head to summon a super robot.

“I’m going to have to ask you to hand that over.”

Iori laughed in disbelief. “Are you serious right now? You wanna stop putting on, like, your disciplinary committee face, and take a look around you?”

“Students aren’t permitted weapons,” he continued, not really listening.

Iori’s face fell. “Dude. Dude. Really. It’s not an actual-”

“Even prop weapons are forbidden by the student code of conduct. You-”

“No, you wanna do this? You wanna break out the rulebook during the Dark Hour? How’s this for the rules: they gave us these as part of SEES, which is like, an _official_ school club, with an _official_ advisor who _officially_ gave us these fake guns that aren’t actually guns. It’s totally aboveboard!”

…That was a good try, but… “I’ll believe that when I hear it from your faculty advisor.”

“Oh my god. Moriyama, help me out here.”

Moriyama hadn’t moved for a little while. When Iori addressed her, she seemed to snap out of it. “H-huh?”

“I dunno, tell this guy to step off! Scare him or something, I dunno!”

“Hey, Iori… that gun thing, uh. That’s… Fuuka uses that?”

Iori looked puzzled. “…Yeah? It’s how you summon your Persona, you have to sort of… uh, there’s sort of a trick to getting it to work the first time, but after that, you just have to kind of… point it like so, and shoot.”

“…Okay.”

“Hey, are you all right? You look kinda out of it.”

Moriyama shook her head. “No, it’s just- the mental image, I guess. I don’t want to think about Fuuka… doing that.”

Iori raised his eyebrows. “O-oh. I, uh… I see. Because you almost…”

“ _Yeah, because I almost, thanks.”_

Hidetoshi was a little lost. What were they going on about? He needed to take back control of this situation.

“Never mind all that. You’re going to take me to speak to your faculty advisor, yes?”

The dog barked sharply at him.

Iori turned to look at him, remembering he was there. “Oh! Yeah, probably. I think plan A is we just go back to school, and… wait, no, does Ikutsuki have office hours outside the dorms? ‘Cause, the school is Tartarus right now, and I don’t know whether he’d… be in there.”

Then he froze. “Wait. Wait, hang on. Ikutsuki-sensei doesn’t have a Persona. If he _is_ at school, and school is Tartarus… crap, he’s probably in serious trouble!”

Moriyama waved a hand in front of his face. “Hey, Earth to Iori! What the heck is Tartarus? What’re you talking about?”

Iori pointed at the eldritch tower on the horizon. “That thing! It’s like… a crazy RPG dungeon full of weird mask demons, and the school turns into it every Dark Hour.”

“Every Dark Hour? Dammit, Iori, we don’t know what that means!”

“Uh- shit, okay, um. Long story short, there’s like… every day, there’s this extra hour at midnight where time freezes, and while time is frozen, everyone is coffins, school is a dungeon, and we summon Personas with Evokers in order to fight the shadow demons that show up when that happens. Like, uh, the ones that went after you.”

Moriyama threw her hands up. “That’s a hell of a lot of words for a long story short!”

“Well it’s a _really long story!_ What do you want from me, huh?! I’m doing my best, here!”

Hidetoshi pointed an accusing finger. “There’s an inconsistency in your little story, Iori.”

“Eh?!”

“You said this ‘extra hour’ happens at midnight. Does this look like midnight to you?”

Iori sighed in exasperation. “Yeah, no, that’s why this is _weird!_ Keep up, dude!”

“So-”

The dog barked, but that wasn’t the startling part.

The startling part was that the giant robot hovering behind Iori suddenly moved forward and kicked out, the giant golden wing by its leg slicing through the air and missing his head by a fraction of an inch.

“Ngh- you- you’re going to have to do better than that if you’re trying to intimidate me!” he managed to sputter out, feeling somewhat proud of himself for keeping his composure and bladder control.

The grim look on Iori’s face wasn’t directed at him, though. Hidetoshi turned to his left, and jumped back when he saw the blade of the robot’s foot buried in an eerie blue mask- a mask which was attached to a roiling mass of shadow. For a split second, he was able to see the amorphous claw of that shadow reaching out for where his back had been. Then the mask exploded, and the shadow dissolved.

“What the fuck?!” Moriyama exploded.

“Yeah, uh, those would be the shadow demons I was talking about. They, uh… they show up when this happens. Usually you guys are in those coffins, so you’re safe, but this time… we oughta get you somewhere you won’t get killed? I guess?”

“Bark! Bark!”

Hidetoshi looked around frantically. Were there… more of those things? He’d just nearly died, hadn’t he?

“Should we meet up with your club at school?” Moriyama asked. “They’ve all got stands too, right?”

Iori grimaced. “They’re called Personas, and- uh, probably not. Tartarus _really_ doesn’t count as a safe place. We have a safehouse over at the Iwatodai dorm building- I’m thinking we run over there, wait out this weird off-schedule Dark Hour, then figure it out from there.”

Yes, that sounded… good. He’d nearly died, and something about that was making him substantially more inclined to listen to the suggestions of the person who’d saved his life- delinquent or no delinquent.

He nodded, and called over to the woman by the corpse, who’d been keeping her distance. “Ma’am, please follow us! We mean you no harm, and we know a safe place to weather this crisis!”

Iori spun around. “Wait, what?”

The woman giggled. “Oh, you noticed! I was wondering when you’d put your observational skills to work!”

She… seemed unusually unconcerned.

Iori looked her up and down. “Uh- wow, sorry. I didn’t realize you were there. You okay?”

Moriyama was staring at the woman’s feet, for some reason. Not that she could even see them, what with the long dress. Who _was_ this, anyhow? Some sort of… gothic lolita fashionista?

“Oh, naturally! I’m positively fine, don’t worry about a thing,” she said, again giggling. She hid her mouth behind a fan when she did.

“Uh… huh,” Iori said. “You, uh… hear all that? You know what’s going on right now?”

The woman guffawed, unable to conceal her laughter with the fan. “Do I _know what’s going on_ right now? Dear boy… you have _no idea.”_

Moriyama tapped Iori’s shoulder. _“Not platform heels,”_ she whispered.

“Huh?”

Wait… what? What did that mean? Moriyama had noticed something- something about the woman’s feet?

And because he was looking, now, he could see when the woman took a step forward.

Or more accurately, didn’t.

There was no bob, no shifting of weight. The woman _floated_ forward, giggling and hiding her face with that fan- a fan which had a pattern of staring eyes printed on it, now, when it hadn’t before.

Iori looked confused- and still hadn’t noticed. “Uh, yes, ma’am. No idea what’s going on. I mean, why it’s the Dark Hour now, anyway. I was more asking if you heard about going to the safehou-”

“Oh, I’ve heard about _lots_ of things, dear boy,” the woman said. “The things I’ve heard! The things I know! The things that _you_ will _never, ever_ know!”

As the woman floated ominously a few more inches into the air, Moriyama grabbed Iori’s shoulders and pulled. “MOVE, idiot!”

The eyes on the woman’s fan blinked in unison. “Of course _I_ know why you’re here,” she said. “You’ve stepped across the threshold of _my_ truth, now- the truth of Berg, the Witch of Knowing!”

“Holy shit, okay, yep, we’re outta here!” Iori yelped. Hidetoshi didn’t need telling twice- he spun on his heels and ran in the direction of where he was _pretty_ sure Iwatodai was.

And then he spun on his heels again, because he’d found himself running _towards_ the police tape and the crime scene and the terrifying witch-woman.

And then, having turned again, and seen her again, and then turned in each direction and seen the same sight before him in each one- _then,_ he panicked.

“Hermes!”

“Bark!”

The robot was joined by a massive three-headed hellhound, which bore down on the witch- but he couldn’t focus on that, he had to focus on finding a way _out_ of here! Except in every direction he looked, he saw the same scene he was trying to escape- the world had folded in on itself, become a kaleidoscope of this street, this crime scene. There was nowhere he could possibly run to get away.

And then- then, a hand grabbed him from behind (behind?! There was no “behind”, there was only “in front of”!) and _pulled_ and everything went dark.


	3. Responsibility

She landed on someone.

She’d been falling, and she’d wanted to scream but she hadn’t been able to breathe first, and then she’d had what little wind remaining knocked out of her by the impact.

The someone groaned, and then someone underneath _her_ groaned, and finally Big Bro, at the bottom of the pile, sighed.

“Ugh… is everyone okay?” Chie said, directly beneath Nanako.

“Conscious,” Naoto managed.

“Yep,” Big Bro said.

There was a brief silence, and a moment of tension, and then Nanako remembered that she counted as part of “everyone”.

“I’m- I’m okay!” she said. “Sorry!”

She rolled off Chie and onto the floor, standing up as the rest of them untangled themselves. Somehow, despite having been at the bottom of the pile, Big Bro was already standing at her side by the time she got to her feet.

When she looked around- well, there wasn’t much to see. They definitely weren’t home anymore, but her new surroundings weren’t, um… very interesting. It seemed like they were standing in an empty but narrow hallway, with a gray-patterned carpet, cream-colored walls and a tiled ceiling with fluorescent lights. Spotlessly clean. It reminded her a little of the hallway to the principal’s office.

“Status report,” Big Bro said. What?

“Unharmed, but look,” Naoto said, putting on her glasses and pointing at the ceiling.

Nanako looked up at the ceiling, and saw… nothing. Just a regular ceiling. Which, actually, was pretty strange, because-

“W-wait!” Chie said, looking alarmed. “Didn’t we just fall into the TV world? Shouldn’t the TV screen be up there?”

Big Bro, the tallest, casually jumped into the air and braced himself against the walls of the hallway, giving himself a few extra feet of height. That was just the sort of thing he did, like it wasn’t even a big deal. He did it so he could reach the ceiling more easily, and when he pushed in on one of the ceiling tiles, it gave way.

…Revealing nothing much. A small dark space, featuring pipes and wires and insulation. She’d seen something like that before, when someone had to come and change the aircon filter in her classroom.

“…Yep. This is weird,” he said.

“Exactly,” Naoto said, nodding. “Whatever’s just happened, it appears to not be following the usual rules. No TV exit, a Midnight Channel phenomenon in the early evening, and… even though we fell, I don’t have any memory of actually _falling through_ the screen. There was just a flash of light, and then…”

Wait, what?

Nanako tugged at Big Bro’s shirt sleeve. “Big Bro, um… what’s happening? Where are we? How did we get here?”

The three of them looked at one another for a moment, looking unsure of what to say. Some kind of silent communication happened between them. That was just the kind of friends they were. She kind of wished she could have friends like that, someday.

Big Bro looked down at her. “Well, Nanako… it’s complicated.”

“Magic,” Chie said, prompting Yu to wince.

What, really?! “Magic? I mean- okay, it… I guess it looked like magic, but… what?!”

“I wouldn’t use the word ‘magic’,” Naoto said. “Really, ‘magic’ is just… something we don’t understand yet.”

“Yeah, but it’s totally magic, though,” Chie said. “Like obviously it’s really, really, literally magic.”

“Okay,” Big Bro said.

Naoto frowned. “Okay. I suppose. But the problem with saying ‘magic’ is that once you say ‘magic’, you feel like you’ve explained something. By attributing it to magic.”

“Right, because it was magic, is the explanation,” Chie said, looking at Naoto like she was being slow on the uptake.

“No. That’s exactly the problem, is acting like we’ve explained anything once we’ve said it was magic. It’s _also_ magic when… _these sorts of things_ work the way they _normally_ do, so we can’t just use the same explanation to explain why it’s suddenly working differently.”

“ _Different_ magic,” Chie said impatiently.

“Maybe,” Big Bro said.

Naoto sighed and pulled down the brim of her cap. “Maybe. But… that doesn’t help. There’s a difference between _understanding,_ and just… just… _not feeling confused.”_

Chie continued to feel confused. “Wait, what do you mean by that?”

“They’re not the same,” Naoto insisted. “Am I… being weird, here? I don’t know if I’m just being bull-headed about this…”

“No, keep going,” Big Bro said.

Naoto nodded. “I mean… this was never part of my _training,_ exactly, but the difference between a normal person and a detective… is that when a normal person is confused, the first thing they try to do is _stop feeling confused._ But when a detective is confused, that’s… something to hold onto. It’s the _most important_ thing to hold onto. It’s the only thing that’ll lead you to the true explanation.”

Chie sighed. “Okay, sure, but this is _literally magic._ You can’t just _explain_ magic! Magic can do anything! It breaks all the rules!”

Naoto shook her head. “The things we’ve been calling magic _have_ rules. Like the rule that Personas can’t manifest outside of the TV world. Or the rule that Shadows represent people’s repressed personalities. Or the rule that the Midnight Channel comes on at midnight in the rain, or the rule that televisions are the way inside.”

Chie made a sour face. “Sure, but all those rules are crazy and arbitrary and _magic!_ We can’t just figure it out like a crime scene! What, do you want to put a TV in a beaker and analyze it for DNA samples?”

“Why not?” Big Bro asked.

“Yu, please,” Naoto said. “I’m just saying- we don’t know what’s going on. There were rules we thought applied, and now they don’t, and that means we need to figure out the new rules.”

This was all getting a little hard to follow. Big Sis Naoto was talking like a detective from Mom’s books, about rules and magic, but… what _was_ she even talking about?

“Excuse me,” Nanako spoke up.

Naoto and Chie looked briefly taken aback, as if they’d forgotten she was there. That happened a lot with grownups.

“Um, sorry, it’s just… you’re talking about… the rules? Of magic? You… know how to do magic?”

“Yes,” Big Bro said, at the same time Naoto said no.

Chie hunched down to eye level and tousled her hair. “Hey, don’t be scared, Nanako! Don’t worry- we’re going to get you out of here safe and sound, okay?”

“I didn’t say I was scared,” Nanako pouted. As scary as the fall had been, it was kind of hard to be scared of such an aggressively normal hallway. Especially when Big Bro was there.

“Right! You’re really brave, Nanako!” Chie said. “We’ll get through this, don’t worry!”

“I’m not _worried_ either,” she said, even though, okay, she was kind of worried. “I just… want to know what’s happening!”

Big Bro took her hand and held it tight. “We’ll explain everything. Don’t panic, though.”

“I won’t panic,” she promised.

Big Bro nodded. “Okay,” he said, pointing in one of the two directions of the hall at random. “Let’s move out. We don’t have our weapons, so we’re going to need to rely on our Personas.”

“ _You_ don’t have your weapons,” Chie said. “Me, my legs are deadly weapons- and also obviously I’m wearing Sleipnir because I _always_ wear Sleipnir because _look_ at the cool horse decals.”

Naoto checked her bag. “I’ve got the Peacemaker, thankfully.” What was a Peacemaker?

Big Bro nodded, looking faintly put out. “Well. Then. Izanagi, I’ll be counting on you.”

Nanako looked around. “Um. Who?”

He looked… confused. “…Izanagi. My Persona. Where’s…”

Naoto, for some reason looked down the hallway and took her glasses on and off. “No fog.” What?

Chie also tried fiddling with her glasses. “What, are we not in the TV world?!”

“That would explain the mundane environs and lack of an exit portal,” Naoto said. “No fog, no Personas… it would seem to imply the only questions remaining concern our exact location and our means of conveyance.”

“This isn’t helping,” Nanako grumbled.

“Hm?” Big Bro asked.

“You said you’d explain everything,” she reminded him. “But, um…”

“Oh,” he said. “I, um, meant when we were safe.”

“We seem safe enough at the moment,” Naoto pointed out. “Though we don’t have Rise to scan for threats, we’re likely out of danger as long as we’re here in the real world.”

“Oh!” Chie said, pulling out her phone. “Rise! I’ll just call her up and see if she can find us!”

“Not without Kanzeon,” Naoto said, using another word that didn’t get explained. “We’re better off finding an exit ourselves.”

“I’m calling her anyway,” Chie said. “And then Yukiko. And… well, no, the boys probably won’t be any help.”

“Harsh,” Big Bro said.

…Something was bothering Nanako. Something more than how Big Bro and his friends kept getting distracted by every little thing, instead of actually explaining anything.

Last week in class, a representative from the Safety Board had visited to give a lesson about Safety, which was First. He’d showed them a map of the school, which had a thick red line painted on it. The line had been drawn from the adjoining classroom, through the halls, and outside through the nearest door. (He’d explained that he reused the map from Tsutsui-sensei’s class because they’d been out of printer paper to print multiple maps, which struck her as not being especially First as far as Safety was concerned.)

The map had been passed around, and everyone had been instructed to memorize it when it was their turn. She wasn’t sure how much help that was supposed to be, since anyone who hadn’t already memorized the way out of the building… probably wasn’t going to overcome that problem by looking at a crinkled map for roughly fifteen seconds while their classmates urged them to hurry up. Still, she’d dutifully committed it to memory as best she could, before being more or less told it was pointless. “If you don’t remember the map, just follow the Exit signs!”

Exit signs, as the Safety Board member helpfully informed them, were required by law to be visible from every location where the direction of travel to reach the nearest exit was not immediately apparent or as directed by the local fire marshal. As the local fire marshal was busy and couldn’t attend the lecture, Nanako had raised her hand to ask the Safety Board member what it meant for the nearest exit to be “immediately apparent”, because to her it sounded kind of vague.

This had earned the annoyance of the Safety Board member, the scowls of her classmates, and a reprimand from Rikimaru-sensei- but the Safety Board member had at least made a token effort to answer her question.

So Nanako noticed something.

“…Um. Big Bro?”

Big Bro had started down the hallway, still holding her hand. “Hm?”

“I don’t think this building is up to code.”

“Damn it, Rise, pick up!” Chie muttered under her breath, thinking it was quiet enough that Nanako wouldn’t hear her saying a bad word.

“Chie, that icon means No Signal,” Naoto said.

“What do you mean, Nanako?” Big Bro asked, ignoring them.

She pointed to both ends of the hallway. “See?”

He looked in both directions, then back at her. “…No, I don’t. What is it?”

“There’s no exit signs,” she pointed out. “You just picked a direction, right? But there’s supposed to be exit signs showing you how to get out.”

He stopped for a moment to let Chie and Naoto catch up. “…Hm.”

She’d gotten Naoto’s attention. “She’s right. If this is any kind of public building- or even a private commercial building following the fire code- there should be exit signs posted.”

Chie looked confused. “So, it’s something that isn’t one of those?”

“It doesn’t look like a public residence,” Naoto said. “More likely, the owners are just cheap.”

…No, that didn’t sit right. “But- Naoto, look. The walls, the carpet… everything’s so clean. There’s not even any dust. Doesn’t that mean…?”

Naoto frowned. “Someone’s being paid to clean it. An empty hallway. So the owner probably isn’t cheap.”

Nanako nodded as Big Bro kept walking.

“Oh my god, whatever! Someone forgot to put up signs, big deal!” Chie said, groaning.

Naoto shook her head. “Compliance inspectors exist. It _would_ be a big deal, at least to someone trying to save money. A cheap landlord might be flouting the rules and hoping against an inspection, but anyone who can afford cleaning staff can afford basic fire safety.”

Nanako pointed to the ceiling and its regularly-spaced fluorescent lights- and total lack of other features. “No sprinklers, either.”

“Good eye,” Big Bro said. Nanako swelled with pride.

“Um, yeah, Nanako, good job,” Chie said. “But what does that have to do with anything? It doesn’t matter, does it?”

“It’s confusing,” Naoto said.

“Uh, okay? But it’s not our problem, is it? We don’t need to Sherlock Holmes this place. Don’t worry about it, let’s just go!”

“She’s got a point,” Big Bro said. “Let’s-”

That was when someone rounded the corner in front of them.

At first, she thought it was a policeman. Just… the snap visual judgment her brain made, the first thing that popped into her head was “policeman”. He was wearing the hat, and the dress shirt, and he was carrying handcuffs.

But the policeman was also very fat. Not in a normal fat person way, but in a sort of cartoon way. His legs were much too short, his feet much too tiny, his skin charcoal black. A part of her started correcting herself- some people had very dark skin colors, some people had dwarfism or other conditions that gave them unusual body proportions. That didn’t mean anything was _wrong-_

-but then the policeman turned to face them and she could see the mask, inhuman and too small for his unnaturally bulbous gorilla face. And… she could see the _hole_ through him, the perfectly round cavity through his round torso like he’d been hit dead-on by a cartoon cannonball. And the golden key, hovering inexplicably in the center of that hole.

All that, and she didn’t _scream_ until the policeman raised his gun at her and started firing.

She was hit, her ears were ringing, she was flying backwards, she’d been shot, no she hadn’t been shot she’d been _pushed_ backwards faster than she could blink and Big Bro was standing where she’d been, Big Bro had pushed her. _Big Bro_ had been shot, and he was staggering back, and then there were _more gunshots-_

_-_ from Naoto, Naoto had pulled a silver derringer from her bag and was returning fire, and _Big Bro had been shot,_ and Chie was dashing forward, leaping into the air, and _Big Bro,_ and she hit the ground hard, rolling and skidding to a stop, her knee burned against the rug, and _BIG BRO HAD BEEN SHOT._

“TOMOE!”

“It’s no use-”

“ **HRRrrRRGHhhh…”**

“-if I had a sword-”

BANG

“Why won’t it-”

BANG BANG

_crack_

“One more!”

And then there was a laugh, a hideous laugh, high-pitched and malicious and cackling like a storybook witch. A sound she- she must’ve heard before, that familiar cackle, where had she heard that? When? She’d cried, the last time she’d heard that sound.

“There’s another!”

“I got it!”

“Yu, get down!”

“N-no! I’m standing right here!”

Big Bro was okay, somehow, but that laugh resounded and there were more gunshots, and more **HRRrrRRGHhhh** s, and cracks and bangs and shouts of pain. She staggered to her feet, and- the pain in her knee had _no right_ to be the most important thing to her brain right now, she _wouldn’t let it._ Big Bro was in trouble, she could see him taking a charcoal fist to the collarbone, and she had to _do_ something-

One of the policemen- and there were five of them now, pumping shots into Big Bro and Naoto and Chie- exploded into black mist as Chie’s fancy horse sneaker plowed through its head. Naoto, who’d been knocked to the floor, braced herself and put bullets in another two gorilla policemen. Yu reached into one’s chest cavity and _yanked_ on the golden key, snapping something invisible that held it in place. He drove it into the neck of the remaining- monster, the remaining monster, they weren’t people- just before both of them dissolved into blackness.

Silence. Chie doubled over and panting, Naoto and Big Bro on the floor taking deep breaths.

“Everyone okay?” Yu asked.

“Yeah,” Chie said. “Not too bad for an ambush. And we didn’t even have our Personas!”

Naoto laughed a little. “Well, they were Bribed Fuzz. Just direct attacks, and they didn’t seem very strong compared to the ones in Kanji’s bathhouse. I don’t think any of them used Bestial Roar, unless that unnatural laugh was an attempt at it.”

“Or Rakukaja,” Chie said. “Wait, those ones use Rakukaja, right?”

“Don’t think so,” Yu replied. “But yeah. Low-level.”

“You took some hits there- but you’re fine?”

“Yeah. I can’t _summon_ Izanagi, but…”

“Our Personas’ lifeforce barriers appear to still apply.”

“You can call it HP, Naoto.”

“I… okay. But regardless, I don’t want to imagine how this would’ve gone if we’d been-”

All eyes snapped to Nanako, who’d managed to get to her feet. Big Bro’s eyes immediately locked onto her knee, which- was it bleeding? Yeah, it was… it was bleeding just a little. Owwww…

He suddenly was not on the floor anymore, instead knelt down by her knee, inspecting the wound.

“If I hadn’t already killed them…” he practically growled.

“It’s okay,” Nanako insisted. “I’m fine. I can walk.” It probably wouldn’t have helped to tell him her injury was from _him_ shoving her away- and besides, that had probably been the right call. She… wasn’t as strong as Big Bro and his friends.

“Okay, so, uh… so much for ‘we’re in the real world’, huh?” Chie asked.

“…Maybe,” Naoto responded. “There are obviously conflicting indicators. The presence of Shadows, the means by which we arrived, the lack of reception, and our partially-active Personas… all indicate we _are_ in the TV world, somehow. But the lack of fog, our inability to _summon_ Personas, and the missing exit would indicate otherwise.”

She… couldn’t make heads or tails of what Naoto was saying.

“Let’s keep going,” Yu said. “We’ll find a way out. If we don’t… I’ll see if the Velvet Room people have any answers next time I sleep.” Um, what?

“The Velvet Room?” Chie asked. “What, that trance thingy you do to mess with your Personas?”

“This is the first I’m hearing of this,” Naoto said. “What’s the Velvet Room?”

“I just said,” Chie insisted. “He goes into a trance, and talks to...”

“Igor isn’t usually very helpful, but Maggie likes to drop hints.” Huh?

“So… what, these are people inside your subconscious? I’d like to have known about that,” Naoto said.

“Sorry. Just didn’t come up,” Yu said. “Bathhouse shadows didn’t take any reworking of the loadout.” What?

“Can you… show me now?” Naoto asked.

“Can’t. No door here.”

“The doors are invisible,” Chie helpfully added. “And also opening them looks exactly like standing there doing nothing, instead of like going through an invisible door. Means he’s _totally_ not crazy.”

Nanako had a _lot_ of questions. “Um, can you explain-”

“We should probably rework our formation in case we run into any more Fuzz. Or Basalts, or Lexies, or… anything that we can’t afford to give the first move to.”

“Um, Big Bro?”

“Don’t worry, Nanako,” he said, in a way that she knew was supposed to be reassuring but sounded _so condescending._

She knew they cared about her. She knew they just wanted to protect her. They didn’t hate her- they didn’t think she was stupid. They didn’t even think she was doing something wrong by asking questions. They _weren’t Rikimaru-sensei._

But she was an innocent little girl. She needed to be protected, and she didn’t need to deal with difficult things, and she didn’t _need_ to understand because little girls just _don’t_ understand. That was a fact of life, to them. No one ever saw any point to _telling_ her anything. What could she do? What would be the point?

She was getting angry. She could feel it. She couldn’t get angry- she needed to calm down.

_Do you?_

What?

_Do you, really?_

She had to calm down. If she ever showed that she wasn’t okay, if she ever betrayed that she wanted to be treated like a grownup, if she ever let anyone know that she didn’t want to play the role she was playing…

_What would happen?_

There were shouted words, something like “behind you”, and there was Big Bro rushing past her in the other direction. It didn’t matter why that was happening. It wasn’t supposed to matter. She wasn’t supposed to think about things. She wasn’t supposed to know anything. She was an _innocent little girl._ She would be happy as long as she kept on being an innocent little girl.

_Would you, really? Is thy fate so terrible?_

There was a floating woman in a long black dress at the end of the hall, surrounded by a small horde of mask-wearing monsters. She was smiling as the creatures advanced- was that important? What did that mean? Surely _Nanako_ didn’t need to _worry_ about things like that. Don’t be scared, Nanako.

_What_ are _you afraid of? Why should the truth be kept from you?_

Big Bro was fighting, and he’d keep fighting, and he’d take care of everything for her. There was no reason to worry, right? Big Bro would worry about her. Dad would worry about Mom. Someone else would worry about her teacher. Someone else would worry about the monsters overwhelming Big Bro. Was _that_ how she would live her life?

_Is that truly just? Is this the punishment that must come down on high for Nanako Dojima?_

Who was that, that voice in her head? Would anyone answer that question? Surely not. Surely Nanako didn’t need to know. It didn’t have anything to do with her.

_I am thou, Nanako._

Was that so…?

_And thou art I._

There was a pressure building up in the air. It was somehow distinct from the energy of the battle before her, somehow a world apart. Somehow the evil cackling of the witch before her seemed distant.

_Nay._

Distant, not her concern.

_Thou shalt not turn away from this world._

This world? This world that wanted nothing to do with her? She wouldn’t turn away from that?

_Nay._

No. She wouldn’t. If this world was determined to reject her, it would have to _fight._ It would have to fight to keep her from mastering it, to keep her from carving out a place in it.

_Ah… there we are._

If she accepted the world’s rejection, remained in the cage it had built for her… her friends, _her friends,_ would die. They would die and it wouldn’t even be her _fault,_ no- how could anything have been the fault of an insignificant little girl like her? She wouldn’t even have _guilt_ to her name.

_You see it, now: I am thou._

She would have to break the cage.

_Thou art I._ _Thou, young Atlas who wouldst accept the weight of the heavens! Call upon my name, and release thy rage! Show the strength of thy will to make the truth thine own, though thou be bound by the chains of thy heavenly duty!_

_Come, PHANUEL!_ “Come, PHANUEL!”


	4. Pair of Queens

The long dog thing flew into the wall and exploded. Mona hadn’t had any trouble with these things, so she hadn’t had to lift a finger. Weak to wind, apparently.

Crow sheathed his beam saber. His _beam saber,_ really? It was just _silly._ This boy had killed at least a dozen people, and he did it with a _toy lightsaber._ Her heart went out to the victims.

“Hostiles neutralized,” Mona whispered. “And not a moment too soon.”

“Not a fan of dogs, I take it?” Crow asked.

“I- I’m really not a dog person, no.”

“More of a _cat person?_ ” he asked, smirking.

“I _gue-_ hey! Shut up!”

This prison-palace, Makoto hated to admit, had been more of a pain in the neck than she’d bargained for.

The problem wasn’t the shadows- those, actually, were surprisingly weak. Mostly Hua Po, Orthrus, and Inugami so far, plus the odd angel every so often. They’d been able to take most everything out pretty quietly, and avoided drawing any attention.

No, it was more the _layout._

They had no way to find their objective, was the problem. Mona couldn’t sense the Treasure, nor did they know where to find an exit. Securing an infiltration route to the heart of the palace was step one, and they didn’t know where to begin _or_ end. They were just wandering, Crow and Mona taking point while she and Johanna guarded Joker’s unconscious girlfriend.

Since watching the girl meant staying out of fights, she’d been trying to serve as the group’s navigator… but absent a persona like Oracle’s, she’d been doing things the old-fashioned way- with a pen to her notebook. She’d been mapping the palace’s interior as well as she could- and thankfully, it didn’t seem to be ever-shifting like Mementos. Slowly, she’d been making progress.

The place was still a labyrinth, though.

“Where to next, Queen?” Crow asked.

She looked at her map. “...Well, this is a dead end again. We’ve cleared out this… wing, let’s say… I think we need to try that dark hallway, now. Unless we want to start checking the walls for secret passages, but…”

“That’d take ages,” Mona said. “Dark spooky hallway it is.”

As she slowly followed behind Crow and Mona, she looked down at the sleeping girl draped over Johanna’s back. Togo- Hifumi Togo, that was it- seemed to be breathing regularly, at least. Her temperature didn’t seem off, either. But… she still wouldn’t wake up. What was with that? Just some quirk of the palace, or had she taken some kind of head injury? Was she going to be okay?

“Careful,” Crow whispered. He drew his ray gun _(god)_ and fired down the dark hallway. The glowing projectile didn’t seem to illuminate anything, even though the glow _should’ve_ reached the walls. More magical cognitive darkness. The shot vanished into the distance.

“...Hm. We’ll have to test it, then,” Mona said.

“Test how?” Crow asked. “You’re not proposing we just start walking blind, are you?”

Mona didn’t say anything. Instead, Zorro advanced, hovering forth and brandishing his rapier. He began swinging it in quick, light motions, steel glancing off the walls of the darkened hallway.

“Looks solid,” he said approvingly. “Crow, you’re more durable- you take the lead, in case something jumps out.”

“Me?! What, you want me to just take the first hit?”

“I just said, you’re more durable. I’d ask Queen, but she’s got a passenger. And none of us can use Tetrakarn or Makarakarn.”

Crow grimaced. “It just makes sense, huh?”

Makoto motioned to Johanna, whose headlights responded with a thought. The blue glow of her Rakukaja effect pulsed over Crow. “Just in case.”

Crow sighed and started down the dark hallway, Robin Hood taking a forward position. If some shadow came screaming out of the darkness at them, it’d ideally hit him first. Mona was at the ready to administer healing if they got ambushed. An active party of two wasn’t ideal for palace exploration, but they’d make do.

The hallway curved a little as they went on, but it stayed dark, and Zorro wasn’t finding any branches as they progressed. They continued in awkward silence until Johanna’s headlights caught something ahead of them.

The wall marking the end of the hallway appeared to float in the darkness, not subject to the dark effect. The beam of the headlights caught… what seemed to be a large, closed eye.

“Hey, is there something written there?” Mona asked.

Crow inched closer, taking a look at what indeed looked like letters carved into the steel wall just above the eye.

“It says… ‘I… can stand… on my own two feet’,” Crow said, right before four things happened.

The first thing that happened was that the eye snapped open- revealing a staring gray iris with no pupil. Bloodshot.

The second thing that happened, almost simultaneously, was that the letters carved into the wall vanished.

The third thing that happened was that the world cried out “What Power Hath The Truth?” again.

And lastly, the fourth thing that happened was that the floor disappeared out from under them and they all began to fall.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA,” screamed Mona.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA,” cried Crow, all thought of stealth abandoned.

“AAAAAAAAAA,” Makoto added, feeling a little silly for rehashing what had already been established.

“Wh- AAAAAAAAAA!” a fourth, sort of groggy voice chimed in, apparently deciding the issue hadn’t been given sufficient consideration.

“Oh, _there_ you are,” a fifth voice added, and then Makoto landed.

Well, no- _landed_ wasn’t quite the right term. It was more like she just _wasn’t falling_ anymore- like she’d reached the ground and just _stopped._ Which- okay, that was how landing worked, but- but all that force should’ve _gone_ somewhere, she was pretty sure. Physics didn’t always behave itself in palaces, but rarely did it act funny in an intruder’s favor.

She looked around, noticing a few things.

Mona and Akechi were getting to their feet, both apparently fine- except that Akechi was out of costume now, for whatever reason. Actually- so was she. Johanna had vanished, but Togo didn’t seem worse for wear- she’d landed the same way, and as an added bonus seemed _conscious_ now. She’d probably been the fourth scream as they were falling- perhaps the vertigo had jolted her awake.

Her surroundings were sort of strange. It seemed like a laboratory of some sort- like the forensics lab she visited at Dad’s office. Equipment mounting arms coming down from the ceiling, a number of desks, and computers lining the side of the room. The walls had a bunch of monitors mounted, currently powered off- and the desks were covered in machines she didn’t quite recognize, apart from a few different types of microscope.

The floor at her feet was decorated with a strange deep blue pattern- a magic circle of some kind, which seemed to shift as she looked at it. It was out of place with the rest of the room, and she could see the same patterns dancing beneath Akechi, Mona, and Togo, their placement irregular. Perhaps these were responsible for her soft landing? Why had they-

-oh. Well, she could guess why they’d appeared, because the same pattern in miniature was dancing before the fingertips of an unfamiliar woman.

Wait, no. Not unfamiliar. _Distinctly_ familiar, except for how she couldn’t remember ever seeing her before and how she’d definitely remember if she had. Just a sense of déjà vu?

The first thing that struck her was that she couldn’t place how old she was. Her figure and skin suggested she was young, but she was clearly wearing very carefully done makeup, and the white hair suggested she was older than she looked.

The woman was wearing some sort of custom-tailored blue outfit- she’d have called it a peacoat or something, but it was clearly a single-piece garment made to sort of _look_ like a peacoat. The part that looked like the front breast wasn’t folded over from either side- it just looked sewn into the rest of the thing, the gold hoop buttons not actually fastening anything. There was a belt, for some reason, and some strange seam at the shoulder joints… what was this? Was it a uniform? It looked more like something she’d see on the street in Harajuku.

And those golden eyes, were those contacts? This woman had clearly put serious effort into her appearance, but what was the effect supposed to be? Why was- oh whoops, the woman was talking. She mentally kicked herself for going down a rabbit hole again.

“...not who I was expecting. I don’t suppose you’ve seen Narukami around, have you?”

Who?

“What- you- who are you? What is this?! What do you want?!” Akechi demanded.

The woman frowned. “...of course. You don’t remember the Enlil incident, do you?”

“The what?” Mona asked.

She sighed. “It’s fine- that’s to be expected. When you get these instances of… associative resonance, circumstantial simultaneity, whatever you want to call them… if you remembered me, that’d actually indicate something was very wrong, if my understanding is correct.”

Makoto stepped forward. They’d finally run into a _person,_ someone who could talk! In a palace-

Wait. No. The eyes, she’d been onto something. The _eyes!_ Golden eyes, those were the mark of…

“Are you the owner of this palace?” Makoto asked.

“Hm?”

“The owner,” Makoto repeated. “Of the palace. The prison we fell here from?”

The woman looked confused. “No- and I’d hardly call that place a palace. My name is Margaret, and I represent the interests of my master.”

“Your master- Narukami?”

Makoto turned- it’d been _Togo_ who’d asked the question. She looked seriously disoriented, but she’d actually asked the question _she_ was about to ask. Connecting “master” with the name Margaret had mentioned earlier. That was her first instinct? Not panicking, not disbelieving, just… right away, trying to acquire information and make connections? That kind of cool head was impressive.

Margaret, at that, turned slightly red. “Ah- no, you misunderstand. He is not- that is to say- the exact terms of… no, that’s not quite accurate.”

“Is this Narukami the owner of the palace, then?” Mona asked.

Margaret looked up at the ceiling. “That is what you call them, yes? I should talk with my… sisters, I think, about that. But no. Yu Narukami- young man, silver hair, about this high? You haven’t seen him?”

Makoto gave Akechi and Mona a look. They all shook their heads- she wasn’t alone in not knowing what this Margaret was talking about.

“...Hm. I shall continue my search, then,” she said, and started for the door.

“W-wait a minute!” Mona protested. “You just said all that mysterious stuff- you can’t just leave!”

Margaret turned around and raised an eyebrow. “Mysterious stuff, you say?”

Makoto nodded. “I have to agree with Mona. Who’s this master of yours? Who is Yu Narukami? Your sisters? Why did you save us? _How_ did you save us? Who _are_ you?”

Margaret paused for a moment. “...Let’s see. Igor; a guest of mine; I’m not entirely sure; it was dark and I mistook you for someone else; unfathomably powerful magic; Margaret.”

“H- wh-”

“Have a nice day,” she said, and went through the door.

“ _That’s not good enough!”_ Akechi yelled. He immediately chased after her, and Mona followed.

Makoto was just about to run after them, but then…

“Excuse me,” Togo asked, from behind her. Right- she’d nearly forgotten. “I have some questions of my own, if you don’t mind.”

“Oh- right, of course. I’m sorry about all this. It’s… sort of complicated, um…”

“Hifumi Togo,” she said, introducing herself. She took a deep breath, afterwards, as if steeling herself for something.

“Ma-” she started, and then thought for a second. Secret identities, right? Except, wait, no. Togo had been unconscious until now, so she hadn’t seen them in their Phantom Thief garb. “Makoto Niijima,” she said.

Togo nodded, with a strange look in her eye. “You’re one of Akira’s friends, right? I’ve heard a lot about you.”

“Oh- yes, um. You’re Akira’s… um…”

“Sparring partner, yes,” Togo said, hiding a small laugh. “I teach him shogi every so often.”

O-oh. Wait, were they not dating? Thinking back, Joker had never outright _said…_ but then again, _she_ wasn’t outright saying anything, either.

“And that was… Goro Akechi who just left, wasn’t it? The Detective Prince?”

“Ah- yes, it was. I assume you recognize him from that talk show?”

She nodded. “Of course. And I have to say… I really didn’t expect _him_ of all people to secretly be one of the Phantom Thieves, after what he said on TV.”

Makoto froze. What did she just say?

“He kept going on about how their whole shtick is morally wrong… do you think it was all just an act? No, of course it was… but just to throw off the scent, do you think? Or is there some other motive?”

“Phantom… Thieves?” Makoto asked, far too late.

“Akira’s group of vigilante blackmailers,” she said. “Surely you’ve heard of them?”

“B-blackmailers?”

“Well, I assumed. Except there’ve been signs that something more supernatural is afoot, and… well. I clearly haven’t figured out as much as I thought I had.”

“I… don’t know what you’re talking about,” she tried, realizing as she said it that-

“That’s a startlingly poor bluff,” Togo said. “No uninvolved innocent is going to raise _that_ objection first- especially not in _this_ situation.”

She took a deep breath. Was there a way to salvage this situation? She had to think.

Except Togo kept talking. “You really can’t pretend to be ignorant right after blithely accepting the presence of… some kind of magical talking cat, or after having _that_ conversation with that Margaret woman. If you want to avoid being found out as a member of the Phantom Thieves, you’re going to need a lie that explains your unusual behavior some other way.”

Yes, _thank you,_ that had become _quite clear-_

“But… fufufu. There’s no need. I’ll save you from another round of despair, okay?” Togo’s hand began to tremble as she raised it to cover one half of her face.

“Wh-”

“It’s really amazing, you know?” Togo casually leaned closer and looked her in the eyes. “It’s amazing… how much people will confess right to your face… if you pretend to be asleep.”

Makoto stood stock still as Togo doubled over, trying and failing to conceal a laughing fit. She’d… she’d been toying with them. She-

...No, yes, this was _absolutely_ Joker’s girlfriend. Without a doubt. Of _course_ these two were dating.

“Haha…! Oh, that face! I’m sorry! I’m sorry, Niijima-san! I- I couldn’t resist. I didn’t mean to, ah, try and make a fool of you, it’s just… you know?”

She rubbed her temples. “Togo-san…”

“No, I know! I’m sorry! I just… I don’t think I’ve ever had the chance to do something like that for real. And… and everything’s just so crazy, so… you know?”

This was… a lot. Didn’t Joker say Togo was _shy?_ That’s why he hadn’t introduced her?

“Oh, um…! Please, don’t look at me like that. I- I’m sorry. I’m just- just excited. This is unbecoming, I know… um, ‘please take care of me’, I… erk. Presumptuous. I’m sorry.”

She sighed. “It’s… it’s okay, Togo-san. You’re a friend of Akira, right? If he trusts you…”

Togo’s breathing was getting a little weird, and she kind of looked mortified, now. “I’ve… ruined my first impression, haven’t I?”

“Ah… haha. Not- not really. I, um… I _also_ know Akira, so… I mean, all things considered, it’s not that weird.”

Togo was kind of red in the face, now. “Can I just say… he’s… been a bad influence?”

Makoto laughed a little. “Yeah, that’s… that’s Joker.”

“Joker… that’s his codename?”

Whoops. Well… she nodded. “If you already know the rest of it, there’s no harm in telling you the rest. You said you had questions, right?”

Hifumi Togo had _so many questions._


	5. Trespassers in the Desert

It hadn’t been dark for very long when he felt himself hit the ground. The kaleidoscope whirling of the endless crime scene had been replaced with a vast plain of twisted, blackened stone. The rocky surface beneath him seemed _melted,_ like the aftermath of some vast volcanic catastrophe.

“Ngh… what _happened?”_

That was Iori. His robot was gone, and he was lying on the ground the same as him.

“You tell _me,_ magic boy!” Moriyama snapped. She was alive, too.

The dog whined, so that was also not dead. This was better than he was hoping for, what with the giant hellhound and the witch and the physics breaking and the falling an unknown distance onto solid rock. Apart from the bickering, there was silence.

Wait, was the witch still there? Not that he could see, but…

Well, looking around was disorienting. This stone desert was flat for kilometers in every direction, but far off in the distance, huge and indistinct shapes loomed. Taller than any building, too massive to take in all at once. Clouds obscured their features. Looking to the ground in the distance, he could see a network of canyons stretching to the horizon- or at least until they met the colossal shapes in the distance.

And- wait, there was someone else-

Before he could register the other presence, something moved. It was almost hard to identify it as “something moving”- it was more like the sky had changed. One of the monoliths in the distance had shifted a bit to the left- and then lifted off from the ground entirely. Something that huge shouldn’t have been able to move that quickly.

“AAAA, WHAT?!”

“ _Ho-_ ly _fuckshit!”_

Iori and Moriyama hadn’t failed to notice it either- the two of them had gotten to their feet, but they were just as quickly back on the ground again.

“Be _silent,_ trespassers!” a voice hissed.

Iori scrambled to his feet again and looked behind him, where… it appeared a little girl was standing.

“What the- who are _you?_ What’s-”

Without warning, the little girl whipped out a telescoping police baton and went for Iori’s knees. She hit him with surprising force, and Junpei collapsed to the ground.

“GAAAAAAH!”

“I said be _silent!_ Do you want to die?” she said.

“The fuck are you supposed to be?” Moriyama yelled, and charged the girl. But- she tripped. Over…

Over a golden chain tied around her ankle, held by _another_ little girl.

“Please do not move or speak,” the other girl said. “You are all in grave danger, and must wait silently for the threat to pass.”

“Like _hell_ I’m gonna-” Moriyama started, before suddenly falling silent as the giant shape in the distance moved again.

It grew closer, very very quickly. This wasn’t a cloud. This wasn’t a ship. Nothing should’ve moved that fast without breaking the sound barrier- and yet it was silent as it moved over them and blocked out the sun.

The dog whined, and the baton girl shushed it. Surprisingly, it shut up- well-trained, apparently.

He couldn’t be completely sure, in the sudden darkness, but he felt he could almost make out in the sky- that couldn’t be right. A giant… high-heeled shoe?

The darkness then departed, shooting off past them, and then hovering there for a moment. Then it made a circle of the horizon, zoomed back and forth a few times… as if searching for something. Any time anyone made a sound or tried to move, the two girls would silence them.

Eventually, the gargantuan shape moved in a different direction- up, and into the sky, where it vanished.

For a moment, nobody moved.

“Can I move n-” Iori said, before being sharply kicked over by the girl.

“Yes,” she said.

“Ow, what the hell?! Why’d you kick me, then?!”

“You are still a trespasser,” she said.

“And a truant,” Hidetoshi pointed out.

Whoops, the girl was looking at him, now. “Who are you?”

Wait, how was he supposed to introduce himself here? Was she an authority figure? She looked ten years old, at the oldest, but she was clearly wearing some sort of police uniform and was giving orders.

...Better to be safe than sorry. “Gekkoukan High School, Student Disciplinary Committee Supervisor. Hidetoshi Odagiri.”

“Disciplinary committee, huh?” the baton-wielding one asked. “You’re charged with handling unruly inmates?”

“That’s... right, I suppose,” he said, standing at attention. Was this stupid? Should he be trying to get in the good books of… a pair of little girls?

“Good,” the baton-wielder- XMRN, going by her hat- said. “Take this, then. Lawbreakers aren’t allowed weapons.”

XMRN tossed him- a gun?! Wait-

“Hey!! Where’d you- give that back!” Iori shouted, before XMRN kicked him to the ground again.

“On your knees, trespasser!”

“I’m already on my- ow!”

The other girl- OYOO- seemed to be having trouble with Moriyama, who was yanking the gold chain around her ankle every which way and growling like an animal.

“Let- grrrrr- GO!”

“Grrrrr…” the actual animal added, staring down XMRN.

“We’ll be counting on you to keep these lawbreakers under control,” OYOO said, giving him a stern look.

“I… will do my best,” he replied. Right? Yes? What was _happening_ here?

“What the _fuck,_ Onigiri?” Moriyama demanded. “You’re gonna let these weird toddlers tell you what to- ngh!”

OYOO put a foot on her back and drove her to the ground. “Please do not resist your rehabilitation.”

“Reha-what?” Iori asked, this time not trying to get up.

XMRN eyed him suspiciously. “Rehabilitation, lawbreaker. Since we can’t just keep you _locked up_ without a prison, we’re putting you on probation!”

“What the- what law did I break?” Iori protested.

WHACK went the baton again. “Quit asking stupid questions!” XMRN said. “You thought you could just bring a concealed firearm into someone else’s private property?”

“Wh- my Evoker? That’s not a gun, it’s-”

“Tell it to the judge, lawbreaker!” XMRN snapped.

“ _What_ judge?!” Moriyama said, trying to roll out of OYOO’s pin. “What the fuck is going _on?!”_

The two girls looked kind of startled by that question.

“Well…” XMRN began,

“...the lack of a judge…” OYOO continued,

“…” the two of them finished.

No, this was getting to be too much to just play along with. He needed to get these- these, um. Officers? He needed to get these officers to explain themselves.

“I do have to ask… what jurisdiction are the two of you operating under? Are you from the Port Island precinct?”

XMRN flushed. “We- we are not! We serve a higher authority, I’ll have you know!”

A higher authority than the police…? No, they… couldn’t possibly be federal agents, could they?

“Our primary responsibility is as wardens of the Velvet Room,” OYOO said, breaking eye contact.

“Wait, the Velvet Room?” Iori asked.

Moriyama sighed. “What, is this _another_ magic thing you forgot to mention?”

“Uh, no,” Iori said. “Isn’t the Velvet Room that weird maid café Minato’s creepy girlfriend works at?”

What- really? His first instinct was to disbelieve it, but… Arisato, for all his admirable qualities, certainly had a habit of keeping questionable company. (Iori, case in point.)

“Seriously?” Moriyama asked. “Minato really scored at a maid café? What a creep!”

“Nonsense,” Hidetoshi snapped. “I’m sure you’re somehow misinformed, as usual.”

“That’s right!” XMRN said, stomping to punctuate the statement. (“Ow!” Iori complained.) “The Velvet Room is no _maid café!_ It’s an inescapable prison!”

OYOO nodded. “Before we can transfer these trespassers to its confines, however… we must recover our priority prisoner.”

“Wait, wait- you can’t throw us in prison!” Iori protested, receiving a boot to the spine in response.

XMRN tapped her baton on the ground experimentally. “I’ve detected the presence of suitable holding cells somewhere below this cognitive construct. We’ll... head down there shortly and throw these troublemakers in the slammer.”

“...Right,” OYOO replied uncertainly.

“Like hell you will!” Moriyama growled.

He was… missing something, here.Obviously this was some sort of magical otherworld, and these girls represented some sort of authority figure… but even assuming that much, this didn’t seem quite right. He didn’t understand the _rules,_ but whatever the rules were, he got the distinct impression these two weren’t exactly _following_ them. They seemed in obvious distress, and were making a show of their own authority because they weren’t sure what they were _supposed_ to be doing in this situation. Because they were anxious. Because they were _afraid._

A month or so ago, and he wouldn’t have been able to tell. He certainly hadn’t been able to see it in _himself-_ not before Arisato shook some sense into him.

“...am thou,” Moriyama said.

XMRN took her foot off Iori’s spine and began pacing around, tapping at the ground with her police baton. Iori tried to get to his feet, but winced in pain- the girl had apparently done a number on his spine.

“Look, little- I mean, uh, Officers,” he said, taking a deep breath and rolling over onto his back. “I don’t know a lot about, uh, police and laws and stuff, but… there’s gotta be a trial first, right?”

XMRN didn’t even give Iori a disdainful look. “Trials are for determining the guilt of the accused. Since we already know you’re guilty, there’s no point.”

“Bark!”

“Yeah, what Koro-chan said! Uh, as long as what he said is ‘that’s total horseshit’, anyway!”

“...art I,” Moriyama muttered quietly to herself.

...Which was weird. Moriyama never did _anything_ quietly. What was she playing at?

OYOO suddenly stepped away from her, eyes going wide. “ _...Caroline,_ ” she said through her teeth.

“What? I’m looking for a path down- that baseball cap schlub isn’t going anywhere,” XMRN replied without looking over. Caroline? Was that her name?

“...of rebellion that burns within you,” Moriyama droned.

“Caroline!” OYOO called out, backing up hastily.

“What? What is it?” XMRN- Caroline- said, looking annoyed.

He looked to the officers. “What’s going on? What’s wrong with Moriyama?”

OYOO pointed. “That one…! She’s…”

“...acked a worthy opponent. Turned against the weak, for fear of the strong,” Moriyama droned- and she was staggering to her feet, now, clutching her head in apparent agony.

Caroline finally looked over at Moriyama- just in time to be nearly thrown off her feet by the sudden gust of… wind? that suddenly exploded from her.

Moriyama was on her feet now- and there was something behind her, something shimmering and barely visible in the air.

“Oh, shhhhh-” Caroline said, cutting herself off. “Now? For _us?!”_

“Such a waste,” OYOO remarked.

Wait- what was that hood over Moriyama’s head? When did that get there? That- that _certainly_ wasn’t permitted under Gekkoukan’s dress code!

“ _Are you done denying me as ‘cruelty’, then?”_ Moriyama asked- her voice in sync with another, a buzzing robotic sound that seemed to fill the air. _“Having put aside fear of judgment, having opened your eyes to the nature of power... will you tear down the powers that be?”_

“Wh- uh, Natsuki, what’re you… dude, are you okay?!” Iori said, scuttling back a bit.

“Bark!”

“I am! And I _will!”_ Natsuki yelled- and _ripped_ off the black hood, a gesture that sent blood flying everywhere as she screamed in pain.

“Oh, shit! Natsuki!” Iori cried- just as an inferno of blue flame engulfed her, causing the ground to shake. Another burst of wind exploded from her, this time scorching hot and not letting up.

“ _Well, then! With that, young_ _bomber_ _, I will lend you my almighty destruction! Sing, for now we are become Death, destroyer of worlds!”_

The officers looked at each other- and then at the _sky,_ for some reason. One of them- Caroline- said “Not good! This much power- it’s going to notice!”

“We have a more immediate issue, Caroline!”

Hidetoshi had fallen backwards- he’d barely noticed- and as he scrambled to his feet he saw the thing in the air behind Natsuki, now visible in the light of the blue fire consuming her.

It was… a machine, it looked like. A blue four-armed machine with human hands, with- with an old-fashioned round _atom bomb_ for a head, graffitied with a toothy demonic visage. It was holding… a scepter, a flower, a seashell, and some sort of spinny wheel thingy, and it was somehow floating in midair.

And Moriyama- somehow, despite _exploding into a giant blue fireball,_ was alive, and this time _absolutely_ not conforming to the dress code. Some sort of leather getup with altogether too many belts and straps and pouches, with a tattered red cloak billowing behind her. The whole getup _appeared_ to be fireproof, given that she was standing in the middle of all that fire and not burning to death.

Iori boggled. “Wh- is that a _Persona?”_

“S-stand down, trespasser!” Caroline demanded.

“Like hell am I gonna stand down! Get ‘em, Krishna!”

OYOO held up a hand. “You misunderstand the situation! We are not your enemy!”

“You fuckers think I’m gonna believe that? After how you treated us?! You runts are dumber than you look!”

The giant robot monster’s flower began to spin and glow, seeming to… draw in some sort of power. It brandished the flower, and-

“You need to trust u-”

“ALL COPS ARE BASTARDS!” Moriyama yelled- and the monster fired a blast of crackling blue energy that knocked OYOO off her feet.

This was bad. This situation was getting entirely out of control- and he had the sneaking suspicion that if he tried to _get_ it under control, monster-Moriyama would inflict worse injuries on him than the ones she’d previously inflicted on his pride.

He still had that gun they’d tossed him- he’d nearly forgotten about it- but if Iori was telling the truth, the gun wasn’t real, and pointing it at Moriyama would only serve to draw her attention.

...And she was having it point the blasty death flowER AT HIM ANYWAY OH GOD

“Okay, nope! Not the time! Done with this!” Caroline scowled. She moved- with blinding speed, dragging her police baton on the ground. That got the monster’s attention, at least, and it pointed the flower at her, taking aim.

“Hang on, Natsuki! Chill for a second!” Iori pleaded.

Moriyama’s answer was to have her giant robot blast a chunk out of the rock where Caroline had been standing a moment earlier.

“...Now! Justine!”

Who? Wait, was that the other-

OYOO was back up, and she’d pulled a piece of paper from her clipboard. How in the world _that_ was supposed to help… was beyond him.

Or it was until she slammed the piece of paper against the ground, and it exploded in a flash of blue light. After _that_ happened, he was able to deduce that she’d done some kind of magic. Instrumental in said deduction was his observation of a key fact: the _ground_ was no longer there.

Hidetoshi, the officers, Iori, the dog, Moriyama, and Moriyama’s giant robot monster fell into a bottomless pit that hadn’t been there a moment ago, and somehow this was an enormous relief.


End file.
